Cabinet nod for soft finance by Exim Bank

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday approved a scheme for provision of concessional finance by the Exim Bank of India in order to make Indian companies more competitive in bidding for infrastructure projects globally.

“The cabinet has approved a scheme for concessional finance support by the Exim Bank to Indian companies so that they may be globally competitive in winning infrastructure projects,” Information Technology and Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons here after the CCEA meeting.

Noting that Indian firms with their expertise can be globally competitive in infrastructure-building, the minister said a high-level committee headed by the revenue secretary would be set up to consider requests for concessional finance from the Exim Bank on a “case-by-case basis”.

At the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit at Ufa, in Russia, earlier this year, the Exim Bank signed a multilateral cooperation agreement along with development banks of other member-nations to cooperate with the BRICS New Development Bank on sharing of information, extending guarantees, co-financing and issuance of bonds, among others.

Exim Bank of India is the nominated member development bank under the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism.